Romney defends Swiss bank account

Mitt Romney defended his foreign investments in an interview aired Sunday, noting that his personal finances have followed all U.S. laws and he got no special tax savings from a Swiss bank account.

“Well, first of all, there was no reduction, not one dollar reduction in taxes by virtue of having an account in Switzerland or a Cayman Islands investment,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in a ‘"Fox News Sunday" interview. “The dollars of taxes remained exactly the same. There was no tax savings at all.”

Romney added that his blind trustee made decisions “entirely consistent with U.S. law and all the taxes paid were those legally owed and there was no tax savings by virtue of these entities.”

President Barack Obama’s campaign and Democrats have used Romney’s Swiss bank account and his other foreign financial dealings to portray the Republican as an out-of-touch businessman. The attacks have increased as Romney refuses to release more than two years of his personal tax returns.

Asked by Fox's Chris Wallace why he didn’t make moves earlier to skirt those political attacks, Romney insisted that he had nothing to hide.

“I could have said don’t make any investments in any foreign companies, in any foreign bonds, in any foreign currencies, only U.S. entities, and by the way don’t buy foreign products, don’t have any Japanese TVs or foreign cars, yeah, I could have done that,” Romney said. “But I did live my life. And I expect by virtue of disclosing all these things, people can take a look at that and see whether that’s something their comfortable with.”

“I’m not going to try to hide who I am and try to manipulate my life to try to avoid the truth,” Romney said.

Romney added that he wasn’t concerned about the Democrats’ efforts to attack him on the foreign aspects of his personal finances.

“I understand that’s what the Democrats and what the Obama people will do,” he said, adding that blind trusts often turn to foreign currencies. "That tends to be something investors do. But they’re trying to make it seem like it’s some unsavory action. And frankly all the taxes are paid exactly as owed and there was no tax savings by virtue of having that vehicle.”